


The Nature of Batman

by May (thewriting_may)



Category: Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Gen, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29625153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriting_may/pseuds/May
Summary: After an encounter with a new Gotham villain has left several in the city including Batman himself with different outlooks on life, Bruce will attempt to piece together a solution and track this elusive new figure to fix it, but not before the night life of Gotham steps in the way.
Kudos: 3





	1. The Change

The Batfamily had grown far beyond what Batman had ever expected. With Robin and Batgirl patrolling so frequently it usually meant there was down time, and even Catwoman had begun to pitch in occasionally. Batman slumped in his chair, the Batcave was always empty but with other people doing his job, and no reason to leave, it began to feel like a prison.

  
As the hours rolled by getting sporadic check-ins from Batgirl or Robin, Batman began to lose focus on the night. Snoozing between cups of coffee was halted when an alert signal pierced the dark cave. The map of Gotham showed Robin and Batgirl were both outside of town on an unknown call. Knowing he could respond faster; Batman strode across the cave towards the Batmobile and leapt into the cockpit. After the engine roar, the tire screech, and smoke had cleared the Batcave was empty, for the Dark Knight had had set off for his first mission in days.

  
Gotham State University was more alive than usual after its homecoming game. The students where all roaming around and drifting from dorms and parties to the diners and even the library on campus. A group of students walked along a sidewalk outside a dorm building, two of them having played in the big game with two cheerleaders swooning over them. The boys boasted to impress the girls as the group made its way to the frat party down the street while a shadowy figure tracked them from the tree tops. The figure was cloaked and hooded with bright green eyes, making no noise leaping from tree to tree it waited for a moment to strike. The traffic along the sidewalk began to disperse and the wind began to pick up.

  
“Jack! Where is this party? It’s getting cold out.” Tracy clutched onto his arm as they walked along, she had spent weeks trying to get the quarterback’s attention but being lost outside campus property is not what she had in mind with him.

  
“Relax, baby, I’m sure it’s just down this street. What are you so worries about?” Jack straightened his posture and flexed his muscles as she clung to him but he began to feel the eyes tracking them. Jack quickly scanned the area. His buddy Brian was in a quiet conversation with Mindy, and the street lights overhead gave circular oases to the darkness of night. The forest to their left extended into the darkness and rustled in the wind aggressively. No cars came up or down the street for several minutes before Tracy stopped the group.

  
“Guys, I don’t feel good about this, maybe we should just go back to your room, Jack” she snuggled up close to Jack, trying both to get him alone and afraid of what was in the night.  
As the group stopped on the sidewalk Brian spoke up, “Tracy is right, I’m sure we can enjoy the evening with just ourselves, you know?” after he finished with a cheesy grin Mindy blushed, embarrassed he would suggest that in front of her friend.

  
“I guess you’re right, I just can’t believe my directions were wrong, I’m really gonna have to lay into Sam for pranking us on Homecoming.” Jack turned around to walk home but a shadowy figure stepped out of the woods and blocked the sidewalk. The figure was dark even standing under a street light, their shape was roughly feminine and long dark green hair flowed out of the hood over her head. The only other distinguishable feature was her bright green eyes, almost like stars in the night sky they were so bright.

  
Jack stepped back a bit and grabbed Tracy’s arm. “Can I help you? Why don’t you get off the sidewalk if you’re just gonna stand there” He felt a nervous chill run down his spine and then suddenly perfuse sweating began. As Jack began to shake uncontrollably, he looked at Brian who seemingly was paralyzed with fear. The shadowy figure stepped forward with a quick motion, and yet it was so precise she seemed surreal. She moved so fast the group had no chance to run away. Right on top of them, she raised her arms out of her cloak revealing arm length gloves going to her shoulders. Nothing else of her body could be seen because as her cloak opened a flash of light burst out and engulfed Jack, Tracy, Brian, and Mindy.

  
The Batmobile decelerated quicky as it approached GSU. Cruising along for any signs of criminal activity as the police radio buzzed with calls and alerts about several reports of disturbances after the football game. After a few more passes around the buildings and parkin lots Batman spotted a flash of light a few blocks down and a shadowy figure flee quickly from a group into the woods. He programmed the car to patrol the area and hopefully act as a deterrent to any other offenders and leapt out of the opening roof. Landing in a tree and grabbing his grappling hook, Batman fired at a lamp post two blocks down and began to fly through the air as the cable retracted. His cape extending as he flew to glide him along cast a shadow of a giant bat along the sidewalk that landed above the group that the figure had fled from.

  
A mature woman with, presumably, her daughter and their dog all sprawled along the street side knocked out from the light. A stray cat also lay on the ground unconscious next to them. Batman approached the woman and sat her up, pulling a smelling vial to wake her up from his belt. He waved the vial under her nose and she bolted awake, barely making eye contact with Batman before screeching. She jumped onto her feet screaming and trying to turn and run. Batman, swift as ever moved in front of the woman and grabbed her shoulders.

  
“What happened here? Who knock you out?” His commanding tone silenced her and she went nearly limp in his grip. Batman rested her on the sidewalk next to the dog, a lab if his guess was correct.  
The woman looked around confused, she seemed almost unaware of what she was doing out here. “I-I don’t really know, I was walking to a party with Jack,” she cut herself off and furled her brow, looking around again. “Where did Jack go? What was that light?”

  
“I’m right here, who are you?” The little girl said sitting up, then her eyes went bug and she covered her mouth. “What is wrong with my voice?!” A tiny screech escaped as the girl looked down at her body draped in clothes fit for a grown man, pig tails hanging into her eye line.

  
The woman stood up slowly stared intensely. “Jack? Wha-what happened to you?”

  
Batman observed their behavior from a distance on the sidewalk, even the dog had woken up and circled around in vast confusion. “What happened here, Miss. Do you remember your name?” If he was going to apprehend whatever caused this incident, he needed answers faster than they were giving them.

  
Jack, the little girl, looked up to him, “Batman, I don’t know what is going on! I’m supposed to be a guy, I was the quarterback, just look!” she squealed and spun around to reveal the letterman jacket with ‘J. Helman’ stitched into it.

  
The grown woman ran up and grabbed Batman’s arm. “You have to do something; I’m not supposed to be this old. I’m Tracy Fogel I’m only 18!”, she said gesturing to her ill-fitting clothes and salt and peppered hair. “and if I’ve changed, and Jack changed, then I’m afraid to think that this dog and cat may be Brian and Mindy.” The words had barely come out before the two animals that stood at her feet looked up in silent agreement.

  
“I need to know what happened.” Batman shook Tracy’s grip off his arm and kneeled down to the dog and cat. He placed his hand gently on the dog’s head and it recoiled slightly. Turning the body left and right to see all of its sides revealed just a regular dog, until he held its head straight and looked into the eyes of not a dog, but blue human eyes.

  
Tracy sighed trying to gain her composure before she had a panic attack. “Well, we were all walking out this way towards a party but we got a bit lost and were headed back to the dorm but before we could go this strange lady stepped out of the woods.” She sputtered quicky pausing to breathe as she began to cry.

  
Jack stepped up quietly to comfort her and looked back to Batman. “A woman wearing a cloak, she ran off that way,” gesturing into the woods, “Be careful, Batman, she was glowing green and somehow gave off this large flash that must have done this to us.” Jack then went back to comforting Tracy.

  
Batman examined his glove after handled the dog. Dog hair had shed onto him and he got a sealing bag from his belt, placed a couple in there, and clipped it back on. He then ran into the woods silently hearing sirens on coming.

  
The trees went on and got thicker the longer Batman ran. He had caught sight of tracks and falling leaves, whoever this shadow woman he was falling was, she was fast and light. Leaving virtually no trail or sound, He was able to easily hear his target as he approached her. Running up along side the figure through a row of trees, Batman found a gap and pounced across tackling them to the ground. As the pair tumbled, her eyes shown wide and alarmed at his grip around her. They exchanged grunts hitting several small obstacles while rolling down a small hill.

  
Coming to a stop on the shore of a small pond in the woods, Batman stood up uneasily. He shook off the momentary dizziness from the fall and approached the cloaked woman. The dark knight reached down, grabbed the cloak, and pulled it off exposing her body. She emitted a blinding flash of light engulfing Batman. He fell to the ground feeling almost unconscious and sick.

  
The woman stood above him, a bare glowing figuring, her skin looked like the sun almost and yet it seemed so cool like a crystal. Her only clothing were her full arm gloves, thigh high boots and a very minimal one piece. “You idiot, I figured you were the only one who could stop this, too bad.” She grabbed her cloak back as Batman’s vision faded. “I guess I’m starting to get used to this. Being the Chaos Star isn’t as bad as they said anyway.” As the supposed Chaos Star walked into the moonlit forest, Batman lost the battle with whatever she had exposed him to and passed out.


	2. The Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Robin can call it a night he has to take one last ride through Gotham to track the Batmobile when Batman won't answer his call.

Robin and Batgirl rode into the cave on Robin’s cycle laughing. The evening had not been as full of super hero work as Batman believed. Their plan was to turn in for the night until they realized that the Batmobile was gone. A quick scan of the computer revealed the report of Police response to calls regarding the GSU football game after parties.

  
“Computer, what is the current location of the Batmobile” Robin sighed, petty police calls? He could have sent the pair easily. Batman never could sit still. The computer screen displayed a map of Gotham with a dot moving along the streets. Batgirl sat on the countertop and picked up the phone attached to the computer. The tone beeped and signaled but no one ever answered.

  
“Something must be wrong if he isn’t responding, maybe we should check it out,” the red head reasoned. Robin knew Batgirl was a little jumpy to go back out, but his hunch told him that she could be right.

  
“I’ll check it out, you should probably get home, I don’t want to your father to think I keep you out all night, Barb,” Robin smirked and put his helmet back on, the platform spun around and the Boy Wonder zoomed off, back into the night.

  
In Gotham, Robin used his on-cycle tracker to find the Batmobile as it cruised down the major streets surrounding the university. Trying to flag down Batman’s attention resulted in almost getting run over. The sleek black wedge never stopped as it passed Robin or even slowed down, so he drove up along next to it on the right side and punched the command code into the bike’s console. The hatch opened on the Batmobile revealing the whole car to be in auto pilot with no one behind the wheel.

  
Attempting to figure out what was going on, Robin followed the path of the car until its next right-handed turn approached. Speeding past to wait at the corner, the Bird parked his bike and pulled his grappling hook off the belt clip, locking onto the street lamp above. Dangling briefly as the car passed beneath, Robin was able to drop right into the passenger seat of the car. Pressing a few buttons on the dash console brought the car to a perfect stop and closed the cockpit.  
“Computer, where is Batman?” He said, out of breath.

  
The car’s computer flashed the word unknown on screen.

  
Robin wrinkled his brain to work this puzzle out. What could have kept him so long that he left the car unattended like this? “How long has this car been on auto pilot?”  
A timer counting up displayed in the center of the dash.

  
“Where was this cars auto pilot engaged?”

  
The screen became a map of the city with two separate dots, the first was Robin’s location. A path extended from his current location to a side street just outside the University’s property.  
“At least it’s a start.” The car’s engine roared into life as Robin took the wheel and flipped a u turn, heading towards campus.

  
At the scene there were many police vehicles, including Harvey Bullock, the one cop in town who never gave the Bat family a fair shake.  
Robin hopped out of the cockpit as Bullock approached the Batmobile. “What’s going on?”

  
“I don’t know bird boy, I figured you might have the answers, first a whole frat party in chaos, now these 4? Now these freaks are tellin me that the Bat was here but no one has seen im, I’m starting to think yous behind this one Bird Brain.” The detective always having something ill willed to say about the two vigilantes was very hot tempered at the moment

  
“I’m actually looking for him, did they say where he went?”

  
Bullock seemed to get mad at the thought Batman was running loose even from his allies. “Yeah, I guess those two victims said he went off into those woods.” His hand loosely waving in the trees’ direction.

  
Robin secured the Batmobile and jogged off into the woods. The Boy Wonder was not quite the tracker that Batman was but the deep footprints were still visible under the moonlight. He followed the trail until a gap in the trees began at the top of a small hill. Something heavy had left distinct marks in the hill down to the pond below. On the perimeter of the water an unmistakable black cape and cowl covered an unconscious body. Robin knelt down and placing a hand on the Dark Knight’s shoulder, turned the body to face up.

  
The face of a woman laid upward, drowning in the Batsuit that was too big for her. Robin removed the cowl from her head and examined the sleeping face closer. She was young and her features were sharp and immaculate. Her long golden hair parted down the middle cascaded to her chest. Her skin was pale with a rosy hue. Everything about her seemed effortless.

  
Robin, a touch bewildered, tried to wake her up. “Hey, Miss, what’s going on here?” The Boy Wonder gently shook her shoulders and the life seemed to come back to the woman.

  
As her eyes fluttered open, she tried to make sense of her surroundings and pushed away from Robin. “What are you doing here?” she looked at the cowl next to him and gasped. “Robin! Why would you remove my cowl in public?” The woman seemed to know exactly who she was talking to, yet Robin was shocked. This girl looked more like Selina Kyle than anything.

  
“Uh, Selina?” Robin scratched his head trying to figure out why Batman would leave her in his own clothing.

  
“Robin, what are you talking about? It’s me!” She grabbed at her loose-fitting outfit and was shocked at what could be found underneath. Shock overcame her face and she blushed realizing that she had now groping a female chest in front of Robin.

  
“Okay, lady, I need you to stop doing... uh... that, and start answering some questions. What are you doing in Batman’s clothes and where is he? What happened here that left you unconscious?” Robin stood up over the woman who was still speechless.

  
She looked up, red in the face and with wide eyes, “Dick, it’s me, Bruce.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I will have Chapter 3: The Incident up next Sunday, as always comments are greatly appreciated and if you would like continuing updates or have any questions or suggestions you can follow me on twitter @thewriting_may

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed and if you want to see more I can be found on twitter @thewriting_may where I post updates and if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions I will answer them there. I am in the process of uploading this story which is also on fanfiction.net and once I get caught up to the same chapter level my schedule will hopefully become one new chapter every Sunday. I hope you enjoyed and continue to check out my work


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